Reconstructing More Science
by IkeBlues
Summary: After a thought-to-be-dead amnesiac is re-wakened by GLaDOS, he is forced to run the portal gauntlet in a last-ditch effort by GLaDOS to get enough data to begin the Cooperative Testing Initiative. But after Wheately and Chell overthrow GLaDOS, how long can our protagonist survive within the bowels of Aperture Laboratories?
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Cold, sterile air filled my nostrils. A burning sensation filled my lungs, and then diminished slowly with each breath. I began to sit up when I noticed that my body was extremely numb. I opened my eyes in an attempt to find some reason behind my feeling this way. Blinding white light immediately clashed with my vision, causing me to shut my eyes as tightly as I could. Slowly, over what felt like hours, I peeled open my eyelids so that I could see my surroundings.

I was lying on my back inside of what appeared to be a pod. I brushed my fingers against the soft fabric that I was laying on. I sat there, maybe for hours, not even thinking. Just staring. Breathing. Letting my muscles tense and untense, in a hope that the next time a tried to move I wouldn't feel the numb sensation.

Finally, I propped myself in an upright position. My limbs still felt weak and tingly, but more manageable. I craned my neck to look over the edge of my resting place. I sat in a small room. No more than four hundred square feet. There was a desk and a small door. There was a small swivly chair next to the desk. Nothing else. The walls were completely white. So white that it looked like I was looking into a void. The floor consisted of dull-grey tiles. The light in the room seemed to emanate from the walls, with no source of light actually being visible. There was nothing else.

Suddenly, delayed fear hit me like a brick wall. Where was I? What is happening? I jumped out of my pod, ignoring the dullness still deadening my senses. I placed both feet on the ground and lunged for the door. As soon as I was no longer using the pod to hold my weight, I tumbled to the ground. I wasn't able to carry my own body weight. I rolled over back onto my back, and looked back at where I had fallen from.

My bed indeed did look like a "pod", almost egg-like, actually. Only half an egg, technically. The other half looked like it was made of glass. It hinged open on the opposite side that I had got out of. But above the pod was something I had not noticed earlier. A security camera. It looked like a small white oval connected to a robotic arm. There was a bright yellow light shining from it. There was a black lens in the center of the oval. It stared directly at me. I wondered if it had always been looking straight at me, or if I had just stumbled into what looked like the center of its point of view.

I decided that the only way for any good to come out of this would be for me peel myself up, and see what was through the door that I saw earlier, the only problem with that plan being that I couldn't peel myself up. I took one last glance around the room, looking for anything that could help me. My eyes trained in on the swively chair sitting by the desk. The legs had wheels on the ends of them. An idea formed in my head. A began to crawl toward the swively chair. Once I reached it, which was no easy feat, I climbed up into the chair. I propped my leg up against the desk, and kicked out, propelling myself toward the door. I tried to slow down, to no avail. I crashed painfully into the solid door.

I pushed the door open, revealing a room no more than one hundred square feet. The floor turned from black tiles to solid cement. In the center of the room was a short, white pedestal. At the top of the pedestal stood a red button. I wheeled myself to the pedestal, and raised my hand above the button.

I hesitated. Did I really want to press that button? I had no idea what I was doing. I knew nothing. Nothing at all. I finally decided that buttons are meant to be pressed. There was obviously some reason that a button was put in such an obvious spot. I sighed, and slammed my palm on the button. The button made a reassuring click, followed by a beep.

"Hello, and again, welcome!" Began an overly-happy male voice, nearly scaring me out of my skin. The voice was obviously pre-recorded, "As you probably do not remember, you volunteered to test the new Aperture Science Memory Enhancing Performance Drug. This drug's only known side effect is complete memory loss. Unfortunately, this effect has been observed in all test subjects. You will be kept under observation until your memory loss clears. We will begin pumping in a fix for your numbness of limbs."

I began to hear the sound of air rushing through vents. Almost instinctively, my legs stretched out and planted themselves firmly on the ground, the sense of feel being restored to them.

"If you experience any of the following side effects," the voice continued, "please contaCCCCcccc yurorrrrr…"

The recording stuttered and died. I tapped the button again anxiously. Immediately afterwards came a low, sarcastic, robotic female voice.

"Oh, good job. You really deserve cake for that effort. You pressed the button third earliest out of your entire class. Your class of three. Not only that, but the other two members have scientifically been proven to be failures. So, once again, good job." I glanced at the walls nervously. This didn't sound pre-recorded.

"Here. Here is your cake." The voice called. The walls suddenly began to contract, multiplying the volume of the room until it was the size of a professional sports arena. In the center of the now-gigantic room sat a slice of chocolate cake. I took a nervous step off of my chair. My legs supported my own weight again, thankfully. I walked toward the cake.

Upon reaching the cake, I kneeled down to look at it. It looked freshly baked, with wisps of steam still pouring out of it. It smelled like a bakery on a Sunday morning. I leaned forward to touch it, when suddenly an alarm went off, and a man came on over the intercom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have an emergency situation, please evacuate the Aperture Enrichment Center, or try to make it to a safe zone. We'll try and help you… just… just hold on." This voice was obviously not pre-recorded. The fear in the man's wa voice palpable and I could tell that he was only just barely keeping it together. The female voice came back on, with a sigh.

"You should have been the first person I killed, Rattman." She growled, "The source of that broadcast came from this floor of the Enrichment Center. Please, enjoy your cake while I flood this layer of the Enrichment Center with deadly neurotoxin."

The smell of sulfur began flooding in through unseen vents, burning my eyes. I stood, frozen, for at least ten seconds. Finally, by some primal instinct, I began running. Already it was getting harder to breathe. My eyes were blurring up. I coughed the entire way back toward the door to my room.

"Subject Ninety Eight, you have not eaten your mandatory cake." The voice called out to me. I ignored it, and continued running toward the door, my footfalls making loud _claps_ on the cold cement. It started becoming harder to breathe. By the time I reached the door, I was taking in short, gagged breaths. I pulled the door open, leaped inside, and slammed the door shut.

The scene inside was of no reassurance. The air was tinged green from the obviously higher concentration of neurotoxin. My eyes stinging, I ran to my only hope: the pod that I had awoken in. I jumped inside, my leg catching on the edge, sending a flare of pain just bellow my knee. I reached over to the glass covering, and slammed it down, sealing the pod.

Unexpectedly, the pod nearly instantly chilled to bellow freezing, and didn't stop getting colder. My breathing slowed. At least the air was fresher here, I thought. The cheery, pre-recorded male's voice chimed in once more, "Sealing cryo-pod eight to factory default settings: Twenty years in suspension."


	2. Chapter One: Non-Optional Testing

I woke up. I didn't want to spoil the blissfulness of not being able to see my surroundings. I just laid there, enjoying the soft, cold blankets that I had fallen asleep on-top of. I finally convinced myself that I that I need to go to work. Wait. What work? Where did I work? I began panicking. How could I not know where I worked?

My eyes snapped open. My heart skipped a beat. Where was I? I jumped up, nailing my head against a glass dome that I hadn't seen earlier. I went flat on my back and began kicking the glass furiously, to no avail. I let my legs go idle; defeated. My chest began sucking in breath as quickly as my cardiovascular muscles could contract and decontract. I tried to force myself not to hyperventilate, to no avail. Suddenly, there was click, followed by a beep. The glass pane slid open.

I hopped out as soon as the gap was wide enough. I was in a completely white room. Memory flooded back in a tsunami wave of realization. The room looked exactly the same as the last time he had seen it, save for the fact that the swively chair had been pushed back underneath the desk. I unconsciously noticed that I was standing using my own body weight without any problems. I walked over to the door that led to the giant paneled room.

Upon opening the door, I was met with the sight of a small, minimalistic bathroom. There was no red button. A sink. A bathtub. A toilet. Above the sink stood a mirror. I gazed into the mirror. My hair stuck at odd angles. I tried fixing it, to no avail. Sighing, I looked at the rest of my body. I had on a bright-white t-shirt reading: seirotarobaL erutrepA. At first, the writing struck me as barely legible. My stupidity struck me suddenly when I realized that I was looking at my shirt in the mirror. Of course it looked weird. I tried to mentally reverse the image. Aperture Laboratories. Much better. That could either be where I was, a brand name, or both. Laboratories. Didn't a recording say that I was testing a memory enhancing drug? Was I a test subject? I pondered it for a minute. As much as I hated it, I realized that I couldn't answer anything.

Needless to say, I continued questioning myself anyway. Was the neurotoxin part of the test? No, it couldn't be. Stuff like that must be illegal. If it wasn't part of the test, then what happened to the people monitoring him? Were they all dead? What would I eat? All unanswerable questions.

I sighed, and pressed my thumbs into my temples. I looked down at my legs and feet. I was wearing what appeared to be prison-orange sweatpants. My feet were bare. I walked back into my room. I was met with met with the sight of the security camera. It stared directly at me, its yellow light still shining. I opened my mouth to ask for help, hoping that someone was watching me, when I was interrupted.

"Oh, good, you're awake." Said the sarcastic female voice, "I'm sorry I wasn't able contact you as soon as you woke up. I was keeping close watch on my favorite mute-lunatic. I wouldn't want to be killed again, would I? I'm sure you understand."

I stared at the security camera dumb-struck. Was my test monitor insane?

"And yes, before you ask, she has fallen asleep inside of an elevator between tests. That is the only reason that I'm paying attention to you at all. Anyway, I need you to complete a few brief tests. The data collected will be used to build a project of mine. Well, _technically _two projects of mine. I'm sure you are eager to begin this stage of non-optional testing, because I sure am."


	3. Chapter Two: Beginning the Test Proper

I watched as two sets of metal bars extended out from the seamless white walls on opposite ends of the room. One bar glowed slightly purple, while the other one glowed slightly green.

"Activating portals." She chimed in.

Out from the sets of bars leapt two ovals. They were clear in the center, but had different colored borders: one purple, one green. At first glance I thought that I was looking in a mirror, except that when I looked into the ovals, I saw myself from behind rather than a reflection of myself.

"Oh, go ahead. Touch them. There are no wrong answers. Yet."

I walked toward the green one. I tried to touch its luminescent, green edge. However, when my fingers got within an inch of them, they were repelled, somewhat like trying to stick two positive magnets together. I looked into its mirror-like center. It was big enough for me to step through. The image it displayed was of me, leaning over looking at the green oval. The angle of the image that I saw made it look as if I were seeing myself from the angle that the purple oval was at. It scared me, a bit.

At last I worked up the courage to try and touch the image. I leaned forward, and reached for the screen that the picture of me was being shown on. To my surprise, my hand never hit any screen. It just kept going. I looked back at the purple oval. I saw my hand sticking out of the purple one. I yanked my hand back to my side in surprise. The hand sticking out of the purple oval simultaneously disappeared.

"Go on. The first reaction is always denial." The voice urged, "Here, I'll even help you. Dispensing ball in three, two, one. Ball dispensed."

Two small tiles on the roof opened, and a robotic arm came through the opening and dropped a white ball with grey stripes on my desk. The arm retracted, and the tiles sealed shut. I jogged over to the desk and grabbed the ball. It bore the same "Aperture Laboratories" logo as my shirt. I walked in front of the purple oval. A thought struck me that if these ovals did what I thought they did, then I was crazy. I sighed, and lightly tossed the ball through the purple oval. The ball popped out the green oval. I gasped. I ran to the ball, picked it up, and threw it with all my force through the green portal. The ball came flying out of purple oval with enough force to hit me in the back of my head. I picked up the ball again, and began winding up to throw it through the purple oval again.

"You do know that I have better things to do than to watch you behave like a caveman who has never seen fire before go to a candle factory."

I considered it a moment, and put down the ball.

"Good… Enough. At least now you know what a portal _is_. We'll see how well you know how to _use_ them. What you are about to see is one of the single most expensive guns known to man-kind. Don't break it with your below-average coordination and IQ."

A hole opened up in the floor. Out of the floor rose a pedestal with a gun on it. Except it didn't look like any gun I knew of. One end was dominated by a large, shiny, white, egg-shaped object with a hole big enough to fit my arm through at the bottom. Jutting out of it horizontally was a black barrel, like a traditional gun. At the end of the barrel was a smaller, white, egg-shaped object. Three prongs stuck out at the end. Wires connected the two eggs. The place where the bullets came out was a wide tube.

I walked toward it uncertainly. I picked it up, and rubbed my fingers down the smooth curvatures of the gun. I stuck my left hand inside of the hole on the bigger egg. Inside the hole, it felt as though there were two triggers. I hoisted the rest of the gun, which was surprisingly light, so that my right hand was resting on the smaller egg.

"Again, there are no wrong answers." The she said.

I raised the gun, swallowed nervously, and pressed down the trigger on the right. A green light shot out of the barrel, toward the wall. The green portal that I had seen earlier teleported to where I had shot the gun. I looked up, and raised my gun to look at the ceiling, and fired off one shot from the left trigger. The purple portal moved to the ceiling.

I ran over to the green portal, and stuck my hand through. My hand came out the purple portal. It felt like the part of my hand that I was sticking through the portal was being subjected to both the gravity relative to my position, and the gravity through the portal. Upon deciding that that felt weird, I yanked my hand out again. I moved the purple portal against the wall opposite the green one. I took a running start, and charged through the green portal. I came flying out of the purple portal, almost tripping.

"Good. You have learned the basics of portals first out of your class of three. Also, your other two classmates died twenty years ago when I flooded the Enrichment Center with deadly neurotoxin. So you're still in last place, if you think about." She remarked with the same tone of voice as someone who was simply talking about the weather. I looked at the camera, in complete awe. I was being controlled by a nut who just confirmed that she killed at least two people.

"Opening door to test chamber one." She remarked, with no change in voice or tone, as two panels slid apart, revealing a second door. I stood still, not making any movement toward the door. I didn't want to just be this woman's puppet, but curiosity got the better of me, after all, the possibilities of portals were mind-blowing. I began a quick trot over to the door, readying my gun as I did so. Suddenly, the panels slammed shut forcefully.

"Your bio-signs are off the charts." She said, with a bit of shock in her voice, "Look, if you don't eat anything soon you're going to pass out." My stomach rumbled, as if on-cue.

"Not that I particularly care about your well-being, of course. I just need all of the not-dead test subjects that I can find. Their rather rare, these days. I'm going to go monitor _her_ while you eat."

With that, the yellow light on the security camera dimmed. The ceiling opened up, dropping a small plate down. On the plate was a cold turkey leg, and mashed potatoes made of glue (Presumably). On the plate was a note.

DEAR APERTURE TEST SUBJECT:  
I DUG OUT THE HIGHER QUALITY FOODS. YOU DO NOT DESERVE THEM, BUT WE HAD A SURPLUS. ON ANOTHER NOTE, WE ARE RUNNING LOW ON CONFETTI. DO NOT EXPECT ANY CONFETTI.

I wondered under which circumstances I would have been able to receive confetti, even if there was a surplus of it. Soon, forgetting the note, I dug into the eggs and turkey, finishing them off before I even realized that I wasn't using any utensils.

"Congratulations on that great the great practice for the annual turkey-leg eating competition. Oh, wait… that wasn't practice for an annual turkey-leg eating competition? Sorry, I must have confused you with a person who has a _reason_ to be eating that much that quickly. Anyway, opening door to first test."

Panels opened, revealing the door to the first testing chamber. I readied my portal gun and jogged to the door.

"Wait. You have not been assigned your Aperture Science Long Fall Boots." She said as a robotic claw dropped a pair of boots in front of me. I began to put them on as she started talking again.

"The Aperture Science Long Fall Boots decrease air-to-ground inertia, and absorb impact from solid-to-semisolid surfaces. In layman's terms, if you fall from a distance, you won't leave an annoying pile of internal organs that I will just have to clean up later."

I fit my foot as neatly as I could into the boot. The inside of the boot turned almost to a liquid, and molded itself perfectly to my feet.

"I am amazed by your ability to correctly put on your self-molding shoe. Congratulations. Really. If we weren't so low on confetti, I would have celebrated your accomplishment with confetti. Anyhow, beginning the test proper is five, four, three, two, one. Begin."

I ran to the door as fast as my legs could carry me. I ran inside the new room, and began looking at my new surroundings. I was standing on a small platform. In front of me was a deep pit, at least twenty feet deep, and thirty feet long. Across the pit was another platform, with a door and a large red button on the ground. On my platform was a 4x4 cube.

I quickly shot one portal onto my side of the pit, and another onto the other side of the cliff. I walked through the portal, sending myself to the other side of the cliff. I walked toward the door, and looked for any way to open it, to no avail. I looked to the large red button. I walked over to it, and stood on it. The door slid open. I jumped off the button, and ran to the exit, but the second I jumped off the button, the door slammed shut again. I paused to think for a moment. My thoughts flashed back to the cube on the other end of the pit. They wouldn't include an object that had nothing to do with the test there for no reason, would they?

I jumped back through the portal, returning me to my original side. I walked over to the cube, and began pushing it back toward the portal, the only problem being that it was extremely heavy. There was no quick or easy way for me to move the cube through the portal.

"Under normal circumstances, I would allow the test subject to figure this part out on their own, but I really do not have time for that today. To the left of your thumb should be a third trigger. Click that while aiming your Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device at the Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube."

I did as I was told. Suddenly, a small streak of lightning shot out of my portal gun, hitting the cube.

"The cube is now being held by the electromagnetic force of the portal gun. Press the trigger again to release the cube."

I angled my gun upwards, lifting the cube as if it wasn't there. I walked back through the portal, and clicked the trigger again, dropping the cube onto the button. The door opened, and allowed me to walk through.

After that I ran through countless tests. Some involving the same cube/button based puzzles, some involving the redirection of lasers, and some even involving use of turrets, which, "Don't shoot real bullets. Probably. You aren't important enough to me for me to actually check."

The tests became more and more complex and dangerous as time went on. The woman's brutally sarcastic "motivational quotes" did not help at all. Eventually, one of the test doors led me back into my room.

"Subjects test better when they are given proper amounts of food and sleep. Or so I've been told. Anyway, I've never tried it before now. Now go eat and sleep. _She's _about to finish her three tests."

Beef and rice stew was lowered onto my desk, along with a large glass of water. I scarfed it down within moments, and finished it off with a large swig of water.

I crawled into bed.

And awoke to the sounds of alarms going off.


End file.
